Headlines are a critical part of getting your reader’s attention. Not only do they get their attention, but if written right, they’ll hook the reader and push them to keep on reading.
David Ogilvy once said that “5 times as many people read your headline as they do your body copy”. So if your headline fails to hook them, you just wasted 80% of your work. I first learned about headline writing from Robert Bly in his great book, The Copywriter’s Handbook. Much of this post is from his teachings…
The great thing about headlines is there are certain headlines that seem to always work. They can be used on blogs, sales copy, product pages and pretty much anywhere else… Here are my 5 favorite headlines…
1. The “How to” headline
- Many salesman say that if you start your headline with “How to” you can’t write a bad headline. I tend to agree with them. How to’s are very easy to write, and they hook the reader right off the bat. They work especially well with informational articles and blog posts (ex. How to lose fat, How to build muscle).
2. Direct headlines
- Direct headlines are exactly as they sound…direct. No frills, or fancy wording. A good example would be “Kettlebells – 20% off until Saturday”. With direct headlines, the less words the better.
3. News headlines
- News headlines introduce something that is either new or updated. An example of this would be “Finally a diet book that’s as good as advertised” This headline actually gets bonus points because it adds some empathy because they understand you’re sick of diets that aren’t as good as advertised.
4. Question headlines
- Question headlines do exactly what they sound like….ask a question. However you can’t just ask any old question. You MUST ask a question that the reader can empathize with. Some examples would be…
“Are you fed up with diets that don’t work?”
“Are you tired of going to the gym all week and not seeing results?”
5. The list headline
- Were you hooked by the headline of this post??? Ding ding ding! The list is a great healdine to use and always works well, especially online and on magazine covers. Adding a number to it makes it more appealing and is icing on the cake. Lists are really easy to make up as well, just make sure you are delivering great content if you’re promising a lot in the headline. Some examples…
“7 ab exercises that will make your core strong and lean”
“8 workouts that will leave you on the ground in a pool of sweat”
Each of your headlines should also try and target the 4 U’s. These are…
- Urgent – get them to act now, display a sense of urgency
- Unique – either say something new, or say something in a new and fresh way
- Ultra specific – be as specific as possible. How to lose weight isnt as specific as “Get lean and sexy in 4 weeks”
- Useful – You need to offer a benefit to the reader to make the headline useful. Appeal to their self interest
Next time you’re writing headlines for a sales page, blog post, article or even a video – make sure to write a headline that hooks the reader. Focus on these 6 headlines and the 4 U’s and you’ll be ahead of 95% of the crowd.
P.S. IF you’re not yet, follow me on Twitter, and also follow Gym Junkies (my new site)….
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